New Drive Snapshot build released.

as i suspected , in my case its win8.1 with c: as 1 partition so i can set it to 0 , or even leave it for 500mb and it wont do anything right?

 

I tried this feature (auto backup of small partitions) under a miniature live win8.1 OS run from USB.yes it will backup the small partitions of GPT disk, however it will assign drive letters to some of the small partitions that originally did not have drive letters. This caused a problem in restore as you can not restore the partition structure of the disk.

 

What do you mean by "it won't do anything"?

 

I don't understand why you couldn't restore the partition structure; can you describe what happened? I'm able to restore it on my Win7 system.

 

I first deleted some small GPT partitions then tried to restore partition structure. But when I right click on the disk, that restore partition structure option was greyed out so no way to do it.

 

Did you deleted "some" small GPT partitions ?. Why ? I don't think that's a good idea.In my case I have restart the complete partition system with no problem.

 

I deleted Recovery, EFI partitions and kept MSR partition, just for the purpose of testing if Drive Snapshot can restore the partition structure.
Do you mind sharing with me how you restarted the complete partition system? Did you delete all partitions on that disk? In my case I could not, because I have two additional data partitions on the same disk.

 

oliverjia,

Interesting test.

 

I am using SATA hd with c:\ as c:\ , no small partitions in it ... so if i set it to 0 i disable this feature , i dont need it , i want DS to act like the ones who came out before this add on in DS


hope i make my self clear

 

demoneye,

How many partitions do you see in Disk Management?

 

I think deleting all (or some) partitions is a good way to test. You should test as many scenarios as possible, for the case that something *really* goes wrong.
So anybody who can explain what's the best way to restore the partitions in Oliverjia's example, please share...

 

I just emailed tech support at Drive Snapshot and am waiting for their response. I am also requesting to add an option for whole disk imaging. Will update once I hear from them.

 

I see only 2 (c: , d: )

 

Hi demoneye,

Now I understand your configuration. You do not have an SR (boot) partition; your system's boot management is integrated into C: (as is mine). Zeroing-out that new option is what I have done.

Cruise

 

While DS doesn't backup multiple partitions into a single image (sna) file, I presume you are aware that you can instruct it to backup multiple (lettered) partitions into their own individual sna images files. Or were you referring to W8's 3 (small) system partitions?

Cruise

 

Yes I was referring to the 3 small GPT partitions.
It's crucial to keep the correct partition layout/structure/offset of these partitions. I am not sure if DS can keep the correct partition parameters.

 

oliverjia,

It can. I used a GPT disk with Recovery, EFI, MSR and a large NTFS partition. In DS the large NTFS partition was selected to be backed up and 500 MB was entered in the "Automatic backup ...." field. Four images were automatically created.

The four partitions on the GPT disk were deleted and the MBR was zeroed. Drive Snapshot then Restored the Partition Structure and restored the images.

Sort of clunky but it works.

 

Hi Brian,

Why do you find the procedure to be "sort of clunky"?

Cruise

 

You guys are aware of the fact that Oliverjia was talking about a scenario where he wants to restore the whole disk, **except** one or two data partitions? At least that's what I believe was the case.
So:
- backup the Windows system partition, along with the "small partitions" (MSR, EFI, etc), but *not* the data partition
- remove (as test) all partitions, *except* the data partitions
- Make Drive Snapshot restore "everything", except the data partitions.

Well, even if Oliverjia didn't mean it like that, what if we would want to try such a scenario? Can Drive Snapshot do it, and if not: what's the best way to restore the Windows system partition and extra partitions?

 

Cruise,

If you are restoring to a new empty drive there are several steps. Instead of just selecting a single entire drive image and running one Restore, you have to select a single partition image and firstly restore the partition structure. It doesn't matter which image you select. Then select each image in turn and run four restores.

 

Atari800xl,

Yes, DS can do that. When restoring the partition structure it's a little frightening as DS says "All data on the HD will be deleted....". But the data in the data partition remains intact.

 

What is the meaning of "Clean Disk" in DS? It means LBA-0 is zeroed. LBA-0 (also called the MBR) contains the bootstrap code, the Disk Signature and the Partition Table.

In Diskpart, "Clean" means the first 2048 sectors are zeroed. LBA-0 to LBA-2047.

 

Dear Atari800xl,

Thanks for your post - yes this is exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted to keep the 2 data partitions intact while restore the partition structure of the 3 GPT partitions+C partition, when I deleted the recovery,EFI and C: partitions.
My initial test indicated in the above scenario, the "restore partition structure" in the right click pop up menu greyed out therefore did not work. When I tried to restore only the C image to the "unused space" where C partition was originally located, DS always tried to restore the C Image to MSR and then complained the target partition is too small (of course, MSR is only 128MB is size).

Maybe the situtation in my case was too complicated, however Acronis TI 2014 Boot USB did manage to restore correctly.

Maybe I'll test DS again later. I wanna make good use of it because I really like the speed and compression of DS.

 

Thanks Brian for the test. Please see my previous post for more details.

 

oliverjia,

DS can't restore an image to unallocated free space.

I don't know why you couldn't restore the partition structure. I couldn't get mine to show as "greyed out".